KOCHVILLE TWP. -- It wasn't long after their first meeting with football coach Muddy Waters that Steve Zott and his father decided that Saginaw Valley State was the right place to go to school.

"We left that meeting, and on the way home, my father said 'I don't know where you're at, but if you're going to play for somebody, I'd like you to play for him.'" Zott said. "That's what it ended up being."

Thirty-seven years later, Zott was back on campus as a member of SVSU's 2012 Cardinal Athletic Hall of Fame Class.

Zott was one of three new Cardinal Hall of Fame inductees introduced Thursday afternoon in a Ryder Center Ceremony, along with Dave Bertie, the school's head athletic trainer for 16 years, former softball pitcher Kathy Kinasz and former baseball player Jason Valenzuela

Bertie and Valenzuela were also in attendance at the ceremony, with Valenzuela winning the award for farthest distance traveled. He flew in from Southern California, where he works in IT, to attend the ceremony.

"I was shocked, I was absolutely shocked," Valenzuela said. "It was the last thing on my mind. I didn't have any words."

Zott, an NAIA All-American honorable mention as SVSU's quarterback, is now the third member of that era's football program to be inducted into the hall of fame, after coach Muddy Waters and linebacker Eugene Marve were included in the inaugural 2010 class.

That 1979 team won the school's first GLIAC title, fulfilling Waters' famous pledge to win a championship within five years of the program's inception.

It's an experience that Zott still talks about fondly today.

"I've always just thought, I wish everybody in their lifetime could experience a championship. The work, the effort and time that it takes, and have something come to fruition."

Zott settled not far from SVSU when he became a teacher, administrator and superintendent in the Almont school district for 23 years. Last July, he became the superintendent of the Lapeer Intermediate School District.

That's allowed him to attend plenty of SVSU football games over the years. But he was still shocked to get the call that he would be joining the school's hall of fame.

"Just kind of soak that in and think that somebody feels like you fit with that group," Zott said. "It's an honor. I feel pretty tickled."